By Scott Brinton
Working in a streambed in the state-owned woods, just south of Sunrise Highway and east of the Meadowbrook Parkway, the Youngs removed 10 to 15 extra-large trash bags full of garbage, from bottles to one very old, very rusted engine part.
Robert Young said he wasn't disappointed that no other local residents came out to clean up, despite his sending e-mail messages to numerous other civic leaders and members.
"I don't begrudge anyone for not coming...I know there's a lot going on today," he said, noting that several people had said they couldn't make it because of the Community Wellness Council Walk and/or opening of the Cradle of Aviation Museum. He also said the Girl and Boy Scout troops he works with had just returned from campouts that weekend.
The next cleanup, he said, would be better planned, and he expects 50 to 100 people to show up.
No matter what, Young is forging ahead with plans to form a friends of the Merrick reservoir group to help preserve the woodland between Babylon Turnpike and the Meadowbrook Parkway.
In his research, young has learned that the housing development just east of the woodland was originally built by a Brooklyn contractor who took the street names from Brooklyn neighborhoods, such as Bedford and Stuyvesant. The development itself was originally called Oak Park.
Young has toyed with calling his new group, the Friends of the Oak Park Preserve. The name, however, would only encompass the reservoir property. He would like the group to also watch out for the woodland south of Sunrise Highway, just west of the Old Lindenmere section of Merrick where he lives. So, he's thought about calling the group, the Friends of the South Meadowbrook Preserves.
Young noted that the woodland south of Sunrise is in nearly pristine condition inside the forest. Hundreds of bottles, cans and other assorted trash, though, line the woodland's edge along the Sunrise.
Last week, Young hiked through a newly worn path leading into woodland. In the forest, he came upon a homeless encampment, with a lean-to, fire pit, pots and pans, bicycles and statue of Mother Mary. Young said he spotted three men in their 20s or 30s at the encampment, which sits not more than a quarter-mile west of Old Lindenmere.
The civic activist would like the men to receive social services, including low-income housing. They should not, he said, live in the woods.
The forest, he believes, should be for everyone. That is why he would like it designated as a state park or preserve where people are permitted to hike and bicycle.
Of the woodland, he said, "It's really beautiful...This has got to be for the people to use. We need this land to enjoy."
He also noted that a friends group is desperately needed because the state simply hasn't the money to keep up or even look out for the property at all times. "There's nobody that's going to clean this but us," he said.
Cleanup update
Following last week's installment of the Herald's ongoing series about parkway woodlands, Nassau County Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) has called on county Parks Commissioner Doreen Banks to clean up and secure the northwest corner of Mill Pond Park.
Teenagers have developed an intricate stunt-biking course there, measuring five to 10 acres. Vandals have also ripped apart an abandoned pump house that once belonged to the City of New York, before it sold Mill Pond to Nassau County in 1981.
The pump house is now wide open, and its manholes lead to miles-long network of unused water tunnels.
"As soon as I saw your article, I went down there and looked at" the property, said Denenberg.
The legislator noted that Nassau County recently allocated $1.7 million to dredge and bulkhead Mill Pond to the south, but he was unaware of the environmental damage to the park's northern sector.
"The easiest way" to stop vandalism in the parkway woodlands, including dirt biking, "is enforcement," said Denenberg.
"The county police has to be in there [the woodlands]," he said.
Dirt biking on government lands is illegal, according the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles.
Several residents, including those on West Drive in North Merrick, told the Herald that they have called police and been told that law officers must see the dirt bikers to issue citations or confiscate their bikes.
In that case, Denenberg said, the county must set up sting operations to catch the bikers.
Suffolk County has, confiscating more than 270 dirt bikes driven on government lands. To date, Nassau has confiscated none, according to reliable sources.
